Skip to main content

Contract

I just posted about my new job - at a totally different but very geographically close district from the one I used to work in.

I'm not sure I ever had a copy of the contract at my old district, but I'm looking through the contract for the new one and I am blown away.  By how many things did not happen in the old one.  I don't know if the old district had these stipulations in their contract too and they just got ignored or if they didn't even have them.  But either way, here is my list of Things That Are Exciting in My New Contract, complete with snarky commentary.

1. "The District shall provide each unit member access to a computer workstation with legally purchased and licensed software and/or network access necessary for the support of educational programs and to fulfill necessary professional requirements.  The District shall provide each unit member with access to at least one printer that is free from student access.
Really?  We won't have to beg for free computers and literally have friends build new computers out of rejected parts in order to have some sort of technology in the classroom?  And a printer... wow... that's living the dream.

2. Each site shall be provided with the following for staff use: a lunchroom/faculty lounge, adequately furnished, adequate lavatory facilities for staff use only, telephone facilities which provide privacy.
Notice it doesn't say that the lunchroom can't smell like pee.  Phones that call out and provide privacy?  That's just weird.

3. Each school site will have classrooms usable for teachers at least three working days before teachers are required to report back to work.
Interesting alternative to the answer I got from a principal:

Me: I still can't get into my classroom because the custodians haven't finished with it and school starts tomorrow.

Principal: I really don't know what you're going to do about that.

4. The District shall provide the following storage space: a separate lockable drawer space with key at every teaching station for every teacher, lockable closet space with key to store coats and other personal articles.
And they mean it - I got the keys today and there is a key to a drawer and a key to a closet.  Bizarre.  My method was always to just put my wallet, etc on top of the closets, which I could barely reach and I knew a kid couldn't reach.  This solution is better.

5. Every classroom and major work area shall have a reliable means of communication to the site office and 911.
Yeah, I had that.  It was called my cell phone.  Sometimes I'd call the office from my cell phone because it worked better than the school phones.  And 911 too.  From the cell phone.

It'll be interesting to see how this experience is different!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Loss

  (I have been putting off finishing this blog post for months. You'll see why)  Today, I was cleaning a bookshelf and I found the journal from one of my third-grade students, who I call Fred in my book , in 2001. I still had it because he didn't come to the last day of school to get his stuff this year and I guess it got put in a pile and somehow I've kept it with me.  He didn't come to the last day of school, probably because his family was a mess: dad in prison, mom in an abusive relationship, all the kids (understandably) acting out violently. Fred was expelled from our school in second grade for hitting a teacher. Then he was expelled from the other school, I don't know why, at the end of second grade. He came back on the condition from the administration that he be in my class because I had him as a student in first grade and he listened to me and worked well with me.  We had a really good relationship, although Fred was definitely not easy to have in class....
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part Two

  Second very long part of the prison visit report.   After we got all the paperwork filled out and went through the metal detector, we got visitation slips with the name of the inmate, and made our way over to the other building for visitation. This is not maximum security so thankfully you can just sit next to the inmates, and not be separated by glass or have to use a telephone to talk.    First, you get a gate unlocked and go into a holding pen that is of course in direct sunlight (or rain if it's that season) and surrounded by fences topped with razor wire. You wait there until the gate at the other end is unlocked. This holding pen was a little bigger and less claustrophobic than the other prison (I do not have any claustrophobia and I came very close to a panic attack once at the other place) and they opened the other gate more quickly. Then you walk, again in blazing sunlight (or rain) to the visitation building. This one was less of a walk than the other pri...
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part 1

My former student, friend, and co-author was moved to a new prison during COVID. We (myself, Mitali, and his Abuela) have visited a couple of times via the video visit functionality they set up, but we've also been trying to visit in person, ever since in-person visits were allowed again. After four of them being canceled (sometimes we were told why, sometimes not), we finally got a visit. I was super nervous about this visit. (I felt better when Mitali mentioned that she was also, because she is an inherently positive and optimistic person!) I am not proud of this, but there was a large part of me that was hoping that the visit would be canceled, just like the previous four were. I felt a little better when someone I know messaged me privately to tell me that they had had very good experiences visiting a family member in that prison. But I still didn't sleep well at all that night, worrying about the guards, the many things that could go wrong, and the projected 111-degree hea...
Post a Comment
Read more